Speaking Ortensvenska in Prestigious Spaces: Contemporary Urban Vernacular and Social Positioning at an Inner-city Stockholm School

Abstract

This article investigates how a contemporary urban vernacular (CUV) called Ortensvenska is used for social positioning at a prestigious inner-city Stockholm school. Previous studies have indicated that CUV is often a feature of those on the societal margins, but little research has focused on prestigious spaces where high-achieving students challenge these stereotypes. Drawing on linguistically oriented ethnographic fieldwork among students at a prestigious school, we show how Ortensvenska is used to construct space, class, and identity in everyday school life. It was found that the use of Ortensvenska maintains social asymmetries between class, ethnicity, and place among students at the school. The paper also shows how these linguistic practices blur a fixed separation between languages, styles, and places. We suggest, therefore, that space plays an important role in the analysis of youths' language practices.